tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73560937011029102632024-03-19T03:46:32.595+01:00JOURNEY INTO ELDERHOODJOURNEY INTO ELDERHOOD:
It's a journey with many stops along the way and enriched by the people I meet.
So, stop in and visit. You're welcome...Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.comBlogger549125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-25234640930932139672015-05-06T17:38:00.000+02:002015-05-27T23:10:36.880+02:00Good- Bye for Now<div>
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Our apartment here in Italy is under contract and we hope to close in July and head back to the states. What a grand adventure these last six years have been. Living in Italy immersed in another language and culture, traveling around Europe, making friends internationally, getting better acquainted with our extended family in Ireland is one of those life- changing, deeply enriching experiences that has forever changed me and my world view. From what I thought this might be to what it has been is so much more, so much richer as to be a whole other reality. My imagination was way too puny.</div>
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So, while I yearn for home, I am grateful to my Honey for working in Europe and inviting me to all the places he's traveled, to our friends here for making it all possible with friendship and generous assistance whenever needed, and to our family who only supports us and cheers us on despite not having us nearer. Altogether, and with our own bravery, it has meant an extraordinary opportunity in this, the youth of our old age. I've taken the first steps into retirement and into elderhood; I welcome the next stage.</div>
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I want to focus on the process of packing, saying good-bye to our friends and wrapping up our life here. I'm taking a break from my blog, which I started when we decided to move to Italy, while I do this. The next stage will be different in ways I can't imagine and will call for changes in my blog that I also can't imagine. Becoming acquainted with this virtual world of writers sharing your lives and considerable skills has been an amazing door opener for me. You've been my mentors, my inspiration and support in my efforts to stay conscious and write it down. I thank you. I wish you smooth journeys. </div>
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Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-16172908016343619472015-04-12T12:39:00.000+02:002015-04-12T19:12:22.410+02:00Two Ways of Looking at Bone<div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Bone is a most interesting thing.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It encrypts brick and feather</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">it's shaped </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">with shades of blue</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">like ice midwinter</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">that Maine winter of cerulean snows</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">when a small boy's </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">sledding yells <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">rappelled </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">down the hill.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">2</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But now </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">spring is a carousel</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">that spins a kindred melody</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(Are daffodils ciphers </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">bloomed </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">to mock death?)</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">brings a bone wish </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">to walk again </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the garden </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">to feel <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">earth's curve </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">under spine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Inspired by Hannah Gosselin's blog, <a href="https://wordrustling.wordpress.com/2015/03/06/shades-of-blues-greens-and-in-betweens/">Metaphors and Smiles</a>, back in March where she gave intriguing instructions for a Guided Poem. I liked it and have been playing with it since. Today's post by Grace over at <a href="http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/">Real Toads</a> about Wallace Stevens pulled it together though. It's another in my Bone Poem series.</span></div>
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Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-7609400300696943532015-03-27T15:09:00.001+01:002015-03-27T18:01:06.774+01:00This Search for Tribe<div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">This search for tribe</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">along world's riverbanks</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">with names of past ghosts</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">exhausts me. At some point</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I sigh surrender, go home</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">among the ghosts of ancestors</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">long past whose names I do not know</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">but whose genes form my riverbanks,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">folded and tucked, course bent, </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">hands structured, </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">twilight eyes, </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">this mother tongue spoken,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">my tribe.</span></div>
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Posted for Open Link Night at <a href="http://dversepoets.com/">dVerse Poets</a> and inspired by Margaret's archived challenge, Play it Again # 15, back on Saturday over at the <a href="http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/">Imaginary Garden with Real Toads</a>. I chose the one imagined by Ella in 2012 about Poem Sketching- using a word group and developing it into a poem. I'm a little late but the words I used are: <i>tribe, riverbank, ghosts, names</i>. I took the photo in Prince Edward Island where my maternal grandmother is from.</div>
Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-39783231696453437742015-03-09T18:38:00.000+01:002015-04-08T14:44:03.877+02:00Strange Dirge<div>
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"You pluck strange dirges from the storm</div>
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sift rare stones from the ashes of the moon"</div>
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You've always been this way.</div>
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It's what drew me to you in May</div>
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of '71. Me with storms in my life</div>
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that needed music and moon-struck strife</div>
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that begged a mining of sorts, a sifting through</div>
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remains searching for stones you blew</div>
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to life like a shaman, prelude to all that came after.</div>
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We mined together then and sang out loud until we crafted</div>
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our sweet song. That time the strange dirge was sung<br />
over our first daughter you stayed in such a way that along<br />
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with storm's barrage and from the ashes, we rose, not triumphant,<br />
but still standing, longing that phoenix might bring bereft<br />
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to some other incarnation, any other incarnation than only gone,<br />
us left alone, two not three, with nothing more to be done.<br />
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Posted for Grace at <a href="http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/">Real Toads</a> who introduced us to the poetry of Wole Soyinka, the first Nobel Laureate in Literature from Africa and asked us to use his work as inspiration. The first two lines of this poem are his from the poem: <i>Fado Singer for Amelia Roderinguez</i>. The photo was taken by my Honey at the National Orchid Garden in Singapore.<br />
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Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-86929246230423039552015-03-09T15:49:00.000+01:002015-03-09T15:50:22.644+01:00The Hike<div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Raptor Ridge, <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">once scaled, </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">sets </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">a vista </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">flung to the horizon,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">nature unbounded,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Mt. Baker on the skyline, </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">dappled <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">ferns on Rock Trail, strong sun</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">on mountain and stone, </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">steep terrain, difficult</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">to navigate, demands switchbacks,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">a sweep herds stray hikers </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">to Chuckanut Ridge for </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">final <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">views of this wide sky.</span></span></div>
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Posted for DJan for her ongoing example to stay active and for Anna at <a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_1440781869"></span>dVerse poets<span id="goog_1440781870"></span></a>, Meeting the Bar, who gave us three approaches to create a new poem. One is Reduction and although she suggested we use our own work I was taken by a post of DJan who writes at DJan-ity about her weekly hikes with a group of elder hikers in Washington state. It contained such wonderful names that I wanted to use them in a poem. Who could resist Raptor Ridge? She was the "sweep" in their latest hike staying last in line to keep the group intact. I don't want to reduce her description which you can read <a href="http://djanstewart.blogspot.com/">here</a> but couldn't help feeling a part of it and inspired. </div>
Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-10393400982778747152015-03-02T19:56:00.003+01:002015-03-02T19:56:37.103+01:00The Weight of Blue<div>
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Back <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">when I didn't yet know that goodbyes </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">might be final, </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">when time stretched generously to places</span></div>
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untraveled, back when you and I lived</div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7356093701102910263" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>in the pink bloom bubble of always, </div>
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blue came, wrapped us in crenalated</div>
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folds dampening other colors, tamping down <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">heartfire as it introduced finality. W</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">e </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Posted for Flash 55 Plus for Kerry O'Connor at <a href="http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/">Imaginary Garden with Real Toads</a> who asked us to add the element of color to our 55 words. I took the photo in the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris.</span></div>
Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-90422863738946650622015-02-26T22:53:00.002+01:002015-02-26T22:55:05.102+01:00Declare Love<div>
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Come lie with me beneath the stars</div>
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and make this night forever ours.</div>
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They say the morrow's war is surely lost, </div>
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you fight and I need no reminder of the cost.</div>
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So steal this time with me, my love,</div>
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let night sky witness our sacred troth.</div>
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Toward midnight I walk a plushy stairway,</div>
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you return to soldiers' tent, await the longest day.</div>
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Is it ever thus, my gallant one?</div>
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Do lovers never win the right to come</div>
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first in plans to right the wrongs we see?</div>
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Let us declare love the way to set us free.</div>
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In response to Claudia and Brian's prompt at <a href="http://dversepoets.com/">dVerse Poets</a> to choose one of the lines from their poems and use it in ours. They've been spinning medieval tales this week. I chose one line from each of them: 'Toward midnight I walk up a plushy stairway'- Claudia's line and 'I need no reminder the cost'- Brian's line. The photo is of a friend's house in the ancient city of Lucca, Italy.</div>
Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com32tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-71237279514435973542015-02-17T15:38:00.000+01:002015-02-26T21:40:10.737+01:00Half Marathon Run<div>
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Two days ago I ran the half mmarathon in the National Maraton to Finish Breast Cancer, Jacksonville, FL. I finished 8th out of 61 women in my age group (65- 69). I feel surprisingly good today and pleased that I finished my 5th half marathon (and 1 full marathon) in this fun event which donates all its proceeds to breast cancer treatment and research at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. </div>
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The fair skies and 50 degree weather provided near perfect running conditions allowing a course record in the marathon of 2:13:19 by Elisha Barno of Kenya. It puts my 2:40:17 for the half in perspective. He and the top elite runners passed me on the course in a flash of long strides and effortless gliding. I stood in awe. Gorgeous. the top woman runner, Serkalem Abrha of Ethiopia, finished in 2:39:14.</div>
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The run is through neighborhoods and residents come out with banners, posters, costumes, bands and silly shenanigans of all sorts to support the runners. It makes the run fun and gives boosts of energy along the way when energy wanes from the effort. I was off my goal with a muscle pain behind my right thigh which slowed me down in miles 12 and 13. But my time beats winners of the next age group (70-74) which I'll age into next year. There are at least three of us who'll age up to this group next year, two with better times than mine, so my goal is to be in the top three next year. The top three of each age group win a prize (this year from Tiffany). Now that sounds like a worthy goal! </div>
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I love to run! </div>
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Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-32103585854487311042015-02-01T22:52:00.000+01:002015-02-05T02:03:19.460+01:00Closing out the Decade and Plunging into the Next<div>
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I turned 69 a week ago, the last year of my 60's and prelude to my 70's. My 60's have been the decade of great adventures: moved to Antigua and then Italy, retired from my nursing profession, started running with a marathon and five half marathons so far, started writing with this blog, traveled around Italy and Europe with my Honey and spent my birthdays in Trinidad with my daughter, her husband and the grands celebrating with a hike to a place I haven't yet been. Great adventures brought expansion of my world view from international living, the satisfaction of successfully cleared hurdles from growing to love a new sport, the inspiration of exposure to the writers of world-wide blogs, the fun of doing writing I like, thought I couldn't do and improving at it, the awe of exposure to astounding works of art, architecture and more of the world's natural beauty and the exhilaration of tackling and overcoming long-held fears from challenging hikes (including the above plunge off an 8-10 foot ledge last Sunday which felt like 20!). </div>
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There's no way, of course, to know what awaits me in my 70's but I've made some decisions that will tilt towards what I hope for. We're selling our house in Italy to move back to the states to be closer to family, I'll join a running group that includes elders who love to run, keep writing this blog but with a new perspective from being further along the journey and dive into the life of the diverse community I hope to move to. In this first decade I've stepped into elderhood and found my footing as an elder. In the next decade I'd like to take all that I've received and use it to be of service to my tribe. I can't know how but it will become apparent if I pay attention. </div>
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If the 60's are the youth of elderhood where we make the transition, try out new ways of being, keep what fits and discard what doesn't, then the the 70's are the middle years where we can use who we've become to serve the needs of family and community but with the added wisdom accrued. I'm eager to close this decade gracefully and plunge into the next.</div>
Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-57343963688886351362015-01-31T01:08:00.001+01:002015-02-02T02:48:03.810+01:00Bone's Memory<div>
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When I picture myself alive <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">I'm in lavender </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">fields </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">near home back when muscles</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">powered me anywhere I pleased. They brought me</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">one morning to purple flower bustles</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">stretched out</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">far as eyes see, lavender cowls</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">gathered free,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">held close against my decline,</span><br />
becoming only bone, having to surrender</div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">home's fields and time's spine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Posted for Kerry's Flash 55 at <a href="http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/">Imaginary Garden with Real Toads</a> with an additional feature of a form she devised with a word count each line and a rhyme scheme. The original inspiration was from Hannah's prompt, also from Real Toads, of Lavender Fields under Transforming Thursday/ Friday Nature's Wonders. Also posted for Open Link Night, hosted by Claudia, over at <a href="http://dversepoets.com/">dVerse Poets Pub</a>. Another in my bone poem series.</span></div>
Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-2526976429567804112015-01-30T15:25:00.001+01:002015-02-01T22:51:20.704+01:00All that Remains<div>
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We're left with</div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">this: the hardness of </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">bone, </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">the space where organs </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">used </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">to </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">be, life's music itself stopped,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">silence reigns.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Tonny Maude has us writing cinquains expanded (5 lines with 3-5-7-9-3 syllables) over at <a href="http://dversepoets.com/">dVerse Poets Pub</a>. This is another in my bone poems series.</span></div>
Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-61509219129373579682015-01-09T20:37:00.001+01:002015-02-01T22:53:36.039+01:00Firsts<div>
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My, then, totally cute,</div>
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love- of- my- life boyfriend</div>
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gave me his old and my first car,</div>
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a cream colored VW Beetle.</div>
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He had moved to NYC</div>
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and I was finishing college</div>
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in Boston traveling </div>
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to home, school, work.</div>
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That car held <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">his scent </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">and showed me his intent.</span></div>
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It was the scene of other firsts as well</div>
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but that's for another poem altogether.</div>
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He came to visit one weekend</div>
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and admired my legs in my mini skirt</div>
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as I swung them <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">into the drivers seat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">It's what I remember most</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">about that car- the jolt</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">of being in the driver's seat</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">for the very first time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">I went on to marry that man 41 years ago and we've owned many cars since but talk frequently and fondly of our first car... Posted for Herotomost at <a href="http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/">Real Toads</a></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> who asked us to write about our first car. </span></div>
Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-61457157890436449482015-01-05T15:16:00.000+01:002015-01-05T20:15:06.462+01:00Bone Quiet<div>
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It's strange</div>
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to be without</div>
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boundaries</div>
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marking inside</div>
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and out, defense </div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">made impossible</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Din arrives </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">not </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">just by ear</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">but surrounds</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">each bone. </span></div>
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I thought </div>
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quiet would reign,</div>
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the death silence,</div>
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but wind's</div>
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fierce incursion </div>
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blunts bones </div>
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with no skin </div>
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to hold it <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">out. </span></div>
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Intrusions<br />
blur any sense </div>
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of safe containment;</div>
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after gone </div>
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comes noise.</div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">A Flash 55 in my bone poems series for Kerry at </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">http://www.withrealtoads.blogspot.com</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">.</span></div>
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Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-50840972027204236822014-12-16T15:34:00.000+01:002014-12-16T15:19:32.085+01:00Holiday Travels<br />
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I'm in Orlando, Florida for a stretch of time with the grands alone- yes! Then my daughter and her husband join us in Jacksonville at my sis-in-law's for Christmas and New Years- double yes! I'll write when I can but major family fun is job one.<br />
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Happy Holidays to you all, hope your family time is fun too!</div>
Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-7858145053175399382014-12-12T18:54:00.000+01:002014-12-28T03:25:02.398+01:00Clean Your Bones and Catch Some R & R<div>
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Bones are surprisigly </div>
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difficult to keep clean,</div>
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turns out white wasn't </div>
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the best choice for beings</div>
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without skin. A search</div>
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brought me years ago </div>
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to a distant island <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">spa </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">for bones- a pink lake</span></div>
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surrounded by a rim</div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">of sand for scraping feet</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">and a dense woodland</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">of paperbark trees </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">against which to rub.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Salt crusts cover</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">the shoreline and whiten </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">stained bones. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">The flattering pink color</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">might come from </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">organisms </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">(that don't harm) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">or might arise from a dye,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">but we choose not to use </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">that word, what with it being </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">a spa. Pink draws </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">the ladies though. They carry</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">home clear pink water</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">in necklace amulets</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">that catch the interest</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">of friends and spread</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">the word. Bones</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">worldwide come. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">The bright </span>pink<br />
lends an appropriate</div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">other- worldly air, the pratical</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">aspects of bone care</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">are tended to while</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">peer to peer contact</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">is facilitated. A whole </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">package solution.</span></div>
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For Hannah at <a href="http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/">Real Toads</a> who has us writing about Lake Hillier, a bubble gum pink lake that sparked this (much) lighter tone in my bone poems series.</div>
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Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-1948651117686111092014-12-10T17:25:00.000+01:002014-12-10T23:21:19.576+01:00Bone Whisperer<div>
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Winter solstice, </div>
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short nights </div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">and cold </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">in our bones,</span></div>
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we gather in the dell </div>
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among the alders</div>
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to greet our newest member.</div>
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Fear wreaths her head </div>
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as she feints left to run,</div>
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so I am called </div>
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to calm her <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">and explain </span></div>
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the bone scrum <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">we form. </span></div>
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She <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">doesn't know </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">our ways,</span></div>
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the comfort </div>
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we derive</div>
<div>
from bone on bone,</div>
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but she brings </div>
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the latest news,</div>
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other nights</div>
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so recently hers,</div>
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perhaps she brushed </div>
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a loved one </div>
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lost to us</div>
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and carries </div>
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their faint scent.</div>
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We have orchards</div>
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of hunger</div>
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for all she has.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Posted for Mama Zen at the <a href="http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/">Garden</a> who asked to use homophones in our poem. I used feint and faint. I also found words in another prompt and used dell, alders, wreaths, and orchards but didn't write down the source and now can't find it again. If anyone can tell me I'd be grateful. This is another in my bone poems series. </div>
Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-31644148529307188502014-12-07T14:24:00.000+01:002015-01-31T00:37:09.183+01:00Bone's End<div>
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By the end</div>
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all I sought</div>
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was peace,</div>
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pain dove so deep</div>
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that suffering </div>
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fused to bone.</div>
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Bone's meant to</div>
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hold up and not be</div>
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source of the final fall.</div>
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Can bones be haunted?</div>
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I was at this failure</div>
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so fundamental.</div>
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Death came<br />
as sweet escape,</div>
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a swift descent </div>
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to the ground of all being.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
From the bone poems' series, a Flash 55 for Marian at the <a href="http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/">Garden</a>. I took the photo of a dolmen (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolmen">portal tomb</a>) in County Clare, Ireland.</div>
Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-63772467283301765012014-12-06T13:02:00.001+01:002014-12-06T13:02:36.088+01:00This is My Brick<div>
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"We pave the sunlit path toward justice toether, brick by brick. This is my brick."</div>
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<i>Tim Cook, CEO of Apple</i></div>
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If Tim Cook's brick is his announcement of being gay and the support that that might give someone else, what is my brick? I was going to say apart from raising a daughter to be a thriving woman, mother and environmentalist. But maybe Kelly is my brick even if her outcome is in her hands now. From the moment of her birth, when she first looked around in her old soul kind of way and I breathed in the scent of her, I was utterly and hopelessly in love with her. Her announcement when she was barely three and disagreed with something I said that I should think my thoughts and she would think her thoughts put me on alert that mothering Kelly would have its challenges. </div>
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I can't take credit for her since she was so inner directed from the beginning, such her own force of nature not looking for much direction from me. But being her mother was deeply satisfying, great fun and a unique source of growth for me as a woman. Still is. It's her birthday today. (For the next month and a half until my birthday, my Dad is 98, I'm 68, Kelly is 38 and my granddaughter, Kamala, is 8.) I used to marvel when she was young because she wouldn't hesitate to tell someone what she thought or give them advice even if they were older. She had that clear thinking and confidence. It was the beginning manifestation of her wisdom.<br />
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If we're paving a sunlit path toward justice together then my daughter is a vital brick in that path. The justice of saving the rain forest, the justice of interracial harmony, the justice of attachment parenting and educating children based on their interests and inner drives. Plus, she plays a wicked game of Scrabble. I only began her trajectory but she has flown far and true and built a life based on her values. I admire her for that and feel grateful to be her mother. I'm glad we've done the (occasionally) hard work needed to change and solidify our relationship as adults. I love that we're friends and part of each other's lives. Happy Birthday, Sweetheart, I'm really glad you were born.</div>
Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-14783165980552453332014-12-05T15:55:00.000+01:002014-12-06T08:52:04.850+01:00Unwitting Evangelists<div>
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Some folks live in negative territory every day, </div>
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live on the wrongside of the demographic altogether. </div>
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Errors of brain wiring force them into a granularity </div>
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of vision that would terrify the likes of us. </div>
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They struggle, with unyielding integrity, </div>
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to leverage what right functioning they have </div>
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and build some kind of strategic staircase to normality. </div>
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Aberrant fears drill down into vulnerable minds </div>
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feeding back godawful beliefs they can't quite shake, </div>
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shame cascading over it all as if crazy </div>
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wasn't enough to cope with. It's like some sinister </div>
<div>
reduction in force of brain's powers.<br />
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In this space, getting ducks in a row </div>
<div>
becomes an effort in grounding. They try to capture </div>
<div>
their colleagues, stakeholders who must come </div>
<div>
to the party, like Alice to the mad hatter, in another </div>
<div>
effort to keep their doors open, to make<br />
their thinking 360 degrees once again. At the close of play,<br />
though, the paradigm rarely shifts, hallucinations,<br />
like low hanging fruit, pre-prepare them </div>
<div>
for the idea showers that never end. Brain storms abound.<br />
They yearn to be platform atheists to their version </div>
<div>
of holistic cradle-to-grave disorder. Instead, </div>
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they're product evangelists even as it loops back on them</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">and drives others away. Challenges- </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">how to conversate, how to sprinkle magic </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">over bizarre behaviors, how to touch base offline, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">overwhelm them while answers steer clear. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Going forward means being lost in a maze on no one's radar</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">at the end of the day, actioning damaged from the get-go.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Tony Maude has us writing biz-speak, jargon and buzzwords over at <a href="http://dversepoets.com/">the pub</a>. After 36 years working with the seriously and persistently mentally ill, these phrases, silly in a business setting, became a way to better speak the mentally ill's remarkably difficult story. They have my respect.</span></div>
Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-40350823191597764312014-12-01T15:47:00.002+01:002014-12-06T13:03:55.936+01:00Right Now<div>
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The mountains are gone this morning, closeted by gray clouds. Everywhere is wet from last night's rain and the start of more today. Night winds blew the tablecloth on the balcony into the arms of a chair as if purposely placed there. I've kept it on late this year with its golden background and whispy gray-green olive leaves in collaboration with the warm, sunny weather of these last three months, autumn stretched into December. </div>
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The vines are bare, pared back after the recent harvest. Pruned olive branches are piled in the groves of our neighbors. Wind blows bits of fog from the hills' crevices and smoke, like a thicker, deliberately-placed fog, dots the fields as discarded branches burn despite the misty rain. The scent is of earth and rain. </div>
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Sun, behind cloud layers, looks more like moon. Andrea Bocelli, on my playlist, fills the room with his glorious voice. As sky lightens and ground fog creeps back, the mountains are suspended in air, blue ghost mountains. There is only this moment of full presence, of clarity and connection.<br />
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For Marian's Open Link Monday at <a href="http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/">Imaginary Garden with Real Toads</a> who talked about the importance of our attention as poets and writing what we experience and who asked us to write about what's going on in our little corner of the world.</div>
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Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-51656464750159271712014-11-28T23:35:00.000+01:002014-11-28T23:37:03.888+01:00Giving Thanks<div>
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<div>
I'm struck lately</div>
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by the bounty</div>
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of time given </div>
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in retirement,</div>
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<br /></div>
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the stretch of day</div>
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to do as I want.</div>
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The burden is to choose</div>
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wisely, to plumb</div>
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<br /></div>
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my heart and play </div>
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my stars, each day.</div>
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The grace</div>
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is the freedom </div>
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<br /></div>
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of choice itself. </div>
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What excites me,</div>
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interests me, draws me,</div>
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expands me? </div>
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<br /></div>
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How can I move</div>
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toward those?</div>
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How can I fall</div>
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more in love with</div>
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<br /></div>
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life, this life, my life?</div>
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Read, write, run,</div>
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nurture family,</div>
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talk to John,</div>
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<br /></div>
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visit friends,</div>
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settle after years of travel,</div>
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become a hub,</div>
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although the 'of what'</div>
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<br /></div>
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can't be known yet. </div>
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Weigh in</div>
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on what matters,</div>
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Step toward it.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Be an ally.</div>
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That's all. Except to</div>
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give thanks </div>
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for this life.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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For Brian at <a href="http://dversepoets.com/">dVerse Poets Pub</a> who asked us to write what we're thankful for. I took the photo of the Swan Boats in Boston this past summer.</div>
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<br /></div>
Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-23320437783057672052014-11-26T16:32:00.000+01:002014-12-03T14:01:27.282+01:00Race<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMahNcu8NcLOECJ4mXG0mMzkOLJDb2J96ANtx8tCGW0Z7syddIxLLMXdWsQUQJjFWAePO179I2HQtVlHa0thm1Gw4cqPNsVbkqZ9yOfadIcANVkN_W54NhBtmYpx1m2yV1Ip1cTXdq-jbu/s640/blogger-image-1802436578.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMahNcu8NcLOECJ4mXG0mMzkOLJDb2J96ANtx8tCGW0Z7syddIxLLMXdWsQUQJjFWAePO179I2HQtVlHa0thm1Gw4cqPNsVbkqZ9yOfadIcANVkN_W54NhBtmYpx1m2yV1Ip1cTXdq-jbu/s640/blogger-image-1802436578.jpg" /></a></div>
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It's the sheer scale of the problem that daunts,</div>
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and the skew of things contoured by years</div>
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of seeing blacks as shadowed strangers.</div>
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Lack of contact clouds judgement, fears</div>
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<br /></div>
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fly without relief from here to the horizon</div>
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at each report of black on white crime</div>
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with dirt retold on 24 hour news again</div>
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and again magnifying fear each time</div>
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<br /></div>
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as if we were waiting to be reoffended.</div>
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Are we? Offended is the right word </div>
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but are we? Women are blamed for rape</div>
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and violence against them. Absurd.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Only men, allied with women, can stop rape and violence</div>
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against women. Only whites, allied with blacks, </div>
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can stop <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">racism. So, increase contact, read, listen,</span></div>
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speak up, speak out, have each other's backs.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Posted for my biracial grandchildren and for Grapeling over at <a href="http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/">Imaginary Garden with Real Toads</a> who gave us a word list inspired by his plane travel but which I took in another direction in the wake of Ferguson, MO and too many similar incidents. In spite of the scale of the problem, we must believe we can effect change and then do it. If not now, when? If not me, who?</div>
Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-953831365187804512014-11-20T16:38:00.000+01:002014-11-26T17:25:39.584+01:00Who I Am<div>
<br /></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I'm red hair </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">but not its quick temper,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">except sometimes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm freckles</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">that trace a map</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">of other lands on my face.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I'm muscular legs</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">that run me where I want</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">and take me to <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">unfrequented</span> places.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm fingers curled over</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">a keyboard capturing words</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">black on white.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I'm hungry mind seeking words,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">filled by reading them,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">yearning to learn new ones, </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">playing games of them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm celtic mix that savors</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">family, gathers it, celebrates it,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">cheers it on, helps fix it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm broken one</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">at home with other broken ones,</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">on their side, arms around their shoulders.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm woman in love</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">with other women, </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">with bone feel for </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">our </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">persistent plight.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">I'm woman </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">in forty- year love </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">with a man, a singular</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">bright light man who</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">shows me clear blue sky.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I'm mother, brave</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">enough to bear a girl child</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">and raise her to be brave.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm grandmother to two dear ones who</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">bring me dragons and build new worlds.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm threshold ready to expand. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm wise elder to my tribe</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">and beyond.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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Posted for Brian, who's hosting at <a href="http://poetryjaam.blogspot.com/">Poetry Jam</a> and asked us to write about who we are.</div>
Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-35561430399505579472014-11-07T17:51:00.003+01:002014-12-08T14:45:34.051+01:00Fair Bones<div>
<br /></div>
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The good thing about bones</div>
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is there can be no comparisons,</div>
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who's thinner, who's better looking or better dressed.</div>
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We can tell males from females, of course,</div>
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the angles of bones and width of spaces,</div>
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but expectations don't hinge on that</div>
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or judgements formed.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The problem with bones</div>
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is the lack </div>
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of skin to hold us in, </div>
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the vulnerability to breaks,</div>
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the hunger</div>
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that can never be stilled </div>
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and the question we debate endlessly</div>
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of contact with the living<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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We know things </div>
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and want to pass them on,</div>
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especially to those </div>
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who <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">share our marrow</span></div>
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but the how<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">eludes us.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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That's what bones seek:<br />
to be wrapped in skin again, to talk, to be heard.<br />
<br />
<br />
Gay Reiser Cannon has us writing about "fair" over at the <a href="http://dversepoets.com/">dVerse Pots Pub</a>, Meeting the Bar. She gave various definitions but since I'm on a bone kick, I chose fair as "having a disposition free of favoritism or bias" for this and found bones to meet that standard in an exceptional way.</div>
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<br /></div>
Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7356093701102910263.post-64018177850744752322014-11-06T12:29:00.000+01:002014-12-12T16:05:40.067+01:00Bone Dreams<div>
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I dreamt last night.</div>
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It answered my question</div>
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about whether the dead dream.</div>
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Must mean dreams come from bones</div>
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not brains, bones as scaffolding </div>
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for psych and soul with the DNA of generations </div>
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carried deep within </div>
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bones' marrow.</div>
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<br /></div>
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But about that dream,</div>
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some ancestral reverberation </div>
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straight from the marrow,</div>
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grandfathers galloping through,</div>
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priests stealing things from children,</div>
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a girl rising up to accuse the priest,</div>
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she took things back too, wanted to reclaim</div>
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her grandfather's treasures, </div>
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hand-carved.</div>
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<br /></div>
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That's what you can do with bones:</div>
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stand, yell, take, hold, dream.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Inspired by Grace at <a href="http://dversepoets.com/2014/11/04/poetics-the-book-of-dead-man/">dVerse Poets Pub</a> who wrote about The Book of the Dead Man by Marvin Bell and asked us for a poem written by one dead. The link has expired but here it is posted for Mama Zen with Words Count in the <a href="http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/">Garden</a> who wrote of the circus and requested 90 words or less about which performer you are. This is skeleton man, or dead man walking.</div>
Grandmother Maryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18169464484379536529noreply@blogger.com22